Nikolaus von Üxküll-Gyllenband

Who was Nikolaus von Üxküll-Gyllenband?

Nikolaus Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband was a German businessman who took part in the July 20 plot.

Nikolaus von Üxküll-Gyllenband was born in Güns, Austria-Hungary and joined the Austro–Hungarian Army prior to the First World War. After the war Üxküll worked as a businessman in Germany. He was an uncle of Claus von Stauffenberg. In autumn 1939 Üxküll and Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg contacted Stauffenberg and tried to win him for a coup d'état against Hitler.

In the planning of the 20 July plot Üxküll was supposed to become the liaison officer for the military district of Bohemia-Moravia. After the plot failed Üxküll was arrested by the Gestapo on 23 July 1944. Üxküll gave the atrocities in the concentration camps as the reason for his involvement in the plot. He was sentenced to death by the Volksgerichtshof on 14 September 1944 and killed the same day in Plötzensee prison next to Heinrich Graf zu Dohna-Schlobitten, Hermann Josef Wehrle and Michael Graf von Matuschka.